With nine days to Christmas Day, if you haven't yet purchased all your gifts -- and even if you already have -- it's never a bad idea to add a little something special (and sweet) into the mix, especially as Nassau can boast of having one of the 10 world-class chocolate shops your sweet tooth will love, according to Fodor's Travel, which for 80 years has been a trusted resource offering expert travel advice.
Graycliff Chocolatier, the first interactive chocolate factory in The Bahamas, which works exclusively with organic and fair trade cacao, comes in at number five on the Fodor's list that was released on December 6.
"I was very surprised. We were beyond shocked. We were honored," said Paolo Garzaroli, Graycliff Chocolatier representative.
Graycliff Chocolatier was squarely sandwiched between places such as Rococo, in London, England, which came in at number one; Tirolder Elder, in Tirol, Austria at number two; Soma Chocolatemaker, in Toronto, Canada, at number three; Chocolala, in Tallin, Estonia at number four; La Maison Du Chocolate, in Paris, France at number six; Chocolatier Genevieve Grandbois, in Montreal, Canada, at number seven; Steven Ter Horst, in Adelaide, Australia, at number eight; Paul A. Young Fine Chocolate, in London, England at number nine; and Chocolate Arts in Vancouver, Canada, at number 10.
"To be in the top 10 on Foder's is almost like hitting the lottery kind of thing --that's a special list to be included on. And it's not like this is just the Caribbean, or the Americas; this is worldwide," said Garzaroli.
This honor comes for Graycliff Chocolatier after just four short years of existence. They opened their doors in October 2012.
The chocolate factory offers guests the chance to learn about the provenance of regional cacao beans and see the entire chocolate-making process from roasting and grinding fermented beans to dipping, glazing and using molds to create bars, barks, truffles and cocktail pops. Guests can make their own chocolate bars and learn how to pair chocolates with various spirits.
Although the soil and terrain in The Bahamas are not favorable to cacao plants, Graycliff sources cacao beans from small farmers.
At Graycliff Chocolatier, everything is organic. They use no preservatives. With that in mind everything has to be perfect, according to Garzaroli. They source the best beans in the world and they use traditional methods of making chocolate, which factors into them being able to create their exquisite chocolate.
"The newer machines ... because it's metal on metal, there's always a little bit of an acidic taste to it. What we use to make the chocolate is a stone grinder, which is exactly what the Mayan Indians used to do, so that on top of the whole process gives you a superior flavor chocolate," said Garzaroli.
Graycliff offers 16 standard flavors year round in the chocolate of your choice -- milk, white and dark chocolate -- brandy cherry, salted caramel, pistachio, almond, passion fruit, key lime, vanilla bean, mocha Bailey's, peanut butter, nutella, pale rum, fruit and nut, bacon, pineapple-goat pepper, chai tea and hazelnut.
Their top three flavors, in no particular order, are their salted caramel chocolate, bacon chocolate and passion fruit chocolate.
Seasonally they offer between three to seven different flavors. This year the offerings include a passion fruit and coconut truffle, coffee, peppermint bark and Santa and a snowman made out of your favorite chocolate vice.
While the pale rum chocolate made with John Watling's rum is a menu staple, Garzaroli said the chocolate factory is currently exploring its spirits chocolate series and producing chocolates with Maccallan scotch, beer and Hennessy. He said these chocolates have been very well received. They will be expanding the spirits chocolates to include all the local beers as they've done with tobacco-infused chocolates.
At Graycliff Chocolatier, they have also explored pairing chocolate with savory flavors, and have produced a caramelized onion with Hennessy chocolate, which he said was "absolutely amazing and also well received."
A team that has bought into his vision to show that The Bahamas can produce a world-class product, he said, factors into the quality chocolate they are able to produce at the chocolate factory. The Graycliff team was trained by American pastry chef Erika Davis; everybody in the chocolate factory is now Bahamian and Garzaroli said they do a fantastic job carrying on the torch.
"Everybody has sort of bought into the vision that we have here, and they have been trying to show that The Bahamas is world class. We're very happy with our management staff and all of our team," he said.
When he had the vision to create the chocolate factory, Garzaroli said it was always in the back of his mind that they would achieve great things with the quality of their chocolates. Being rated number five on Fodor's, he said, is an amazing accomplishment.
"It legitimizes everything that we're doing here, and it's one of the anchor pieces to the puzzle that we're creating here with the whole Graycliff Heritage Village, and in that greater sense, the Historic Charlestown project to really cement this area as the historical part of downtown, and the authentic part of something that is authentically Bahamian," he said.

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